While some people, organizations, and even businesses claim that students can take their matter into their own hands and look for these kinds of scholarships, being discovered by a college sports recruiter surely makes things a lot simpler. Not all athletes of today were so lucky to be discovered back in high school, because college sports recruiters are relatively scarce.
What does a sports recruiter do?
Basically, a fairly complete explanation of the job is already in the job title: A college sports recruiter recruits athletic candidates. College sports recruiters are often former athletes or extreme sports fanatics. They are usually associated with one or more colleges or universities who pay them well for their services. After all, the sports team of the popular sport is like the trademark for the college or university.
Recruiters consult with the coaches of the teams of the schools on their needs and wants. They build up a good personal and business relationship with the college or university administration as well as with the coaches and key players of the teams. College sports recruiters maintain good relationships with the important people in the teams of the school by selecting and finding good potential players.
Sometimes the coach of a college or university team does some of the work by actively evaluating the value of potential candidates and the college sports recruiter is just being sent to the games at the high schools to negotiate and be a messenger. On the other hand, college sports recruiters follow their own initiative too, by actively visiting game after game at all the high schools in the area and composing a database referring to the positive and negative aspects and qualities of the key players. The college sports recruiter is not only interested in the qualities of those who already excel in their sport and automatically assume to find a scholarship for the university or college of their choice. The performance of unknown players is also closely followed and the recruiter records sequences of actions that show rough potential of becoming good athletes and stars. If the recruiter is able to find talent before the whole world is aware of potential he can strike a much better deal for the college or university team he is recruiting for.
While a lot of the recruiting process is based on enthusiasm and recognizing real talent, college sports recruiters also have to be good business people in order to be successful in what they do. Good personality skills and the ability to interact with just about anybody are also prerequisites for the job of college sport recruiter. Very often a bachelor’s degree in business or human resources is required to get a job as a college sports recruiter. Being able to speak more than one language is certainly a benefit to the job.
The job of a college sports recruiter can be very exciting, especially if you end up being one of the lucky ones who lands a nationwide position or is assigned to visit teams in other countries. Those who in general do not watch sports usually have no clue how many athletes are recruited from overseas countries every year. Sometimes nationals of certain countries in general really excel in certain sports. Many of these countries are underdeveloped and the chance of becoming a world-famous, and eventually rich, athlete is not very high while staying in those countries. These athletes are usually easily convinced to leave their home country and come to the US to go to college for free.
College sports recruiters have to be able to handle modern technology. Being computer literate is an absolute must for the job. Many athletes aspire to be discovered by a college sports recruiter but want to give their aspiration a push in the right direction. These athletes and often also their parents and others who have their best interest in mind will try to contact coaches of sport teams of different colleges. Often the sports coaches forward these testimonies and recommendations to the college sports recruiter who works with their school to find optimal talent. While only about twenty-five years ago this was mainly all done by regular mail and sometimes even phone calls, today’s technology has changed that spectrum considerably. Email is now the communication tool of choice for just about everybody, and college sports recruiters are just expected to adjust to that perspective, no matter how old they are or how long they have been actively making matches between athletes and teams.
Good college sports recruiters are highly appreciated by the schools they work for and by the coaches of their teams. The pay is equivalent to how dedicated and qualified the college sports recruiter is.
